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(What I thought was a simple Instagram across to here IFTTT thing turned into an unmitigated disaster, sorry if you got a bunch of emails for junk you didn’t need).

So, the year is drawing out and I’m contentedly writing, as glacially as ever, in as many different formats as you can imagine, so that whilst I’m busy, I don’t actually feel like I have much to show for it. Such is life, I guess.

I’ve been home just a little under a week, after a short tour and then a five-week stay in Germany and I’m coming to realise that, whilst I’m still eager to write and create, I definitely have bills to pay and could do with a little more security towards the future.

As you’ve probably all noticed, HoO (as absolutely nobody has ever called it) has been a little quiet this year, deliberately so, splitting my life between England and Germany is and has been fascinating and I’ve wanted to dive into that some more, to put some money away and to not have to struggle too much to pay the bills (I managed nearly all of those things, but money is money – I did open a savings account though, like an actual adult!).

So yeah, a few end of year posts coming up, probably the usual “talk about films, talk about music, talk about what you’ve learned blah blah blah nonsense”, but I wanted to take the moment, purely because I’m notoriously slow in updating these things to say thankyou for being here and for taking a little time with me – next year will hopefully bring new songs and a few tours – I’ve no desire to “make it” anymore, no desire to chase bigger audiences, but I still, desperately want to write and create and make new things, so hopefully next year will allow for much more of that.

Here is a video of me doing a sing in Koln a few weeks ago, I had the best ruddy night, made lots of really delightful new friends and got to cuddle a dog – I think this video reflects that perfectly.

The last leaves on the last trees. Autumnal passing gifts of big skies, first frosts and storms.

You get busy for what feels like a few days and a month goes past, autumn arrives, October passes. Halloween and Bonfire night, my favourite week of the year, the last before the darkness.

– Lots to catch up on, but firstly; many, many thanks to everyone that came out last week, those three shows were some of the best I’ve played in a long time and reinvigorated my tired (and occasionally quite lazy) butt into doing more. Thanks to the various friends from Sofar Sounds Cologne, Teilchen + Beschleuniger and Studio 672. Thankyou also to Robert Grosse and all at Noisegroupie for all their help.

I started this year unsure about music and, to be quite frank, poorer than I’ve been at just about any point in my adult life. Thankfully (hopefully) that time has passed and I end the year in a much happier and more positive place. Between these shows and Sweden, I have rekindled my love for making things and tried, at least a little, to quiet the ever panicking “pay the bills voices” that haunt us all.

I’m going to spend the rest of the year, and probably the start of next chained to a collection of desks, guitars and coffee shops tables in order to write, not just new music, but a few other projects that have been waiting on the backburner for a while. I’m also going to try and keep this place updated at least semi-regularly and rather than just talking shop, I’m hoping to share a little more of what I’m reading, what I’m spending my time consuming and where I’m at creatively. For the most part, I will use this as a hub for everything, but may also expand into email and a regularly scheduled “mailing list” for those that remember 2003 and how good they use to be. Facebook’s continual search for the destruction of all non-paying customers at the hands of algorithmic obscurity means I feel, we may all have to go back to being a little more creative in our search for connection and “audience reach”. For me, that slightly longer, more longform approach might also work a little better – I’m never one for pithy, witty and concise.

And so my friends, it’s back to the office, I shall be back in a couple of days with the first of our regularly scheduled conversations after I’ve had a little chance to get some rhythm and reality back into the world.

It is cold enough for me to see my breath in the air. It is cold enough to feel the winter, waiting.

It feels like the fire is needed for the first time.

Sure, we lit fires in July, but they were smaller, more sentimental creatures. Little ways to hold on, to keep the party flowing. The fire had no meaning other than congregation.We lit them because we could, not because we needed too.

Tonight the fire felt like a practice run for the hundreds of nights that are to come.

For the winter.

And what of me? From here, I start to become wistful, to watch the evenings for the first signs of trouble. Soon will come the final bookmarks of the year, Pumpkins, Fireworks, Fairylights, Gifts.

I will start to nest, to put on weight, to worry about new coats, new boots, new ways of working. I will watch the Geese as they leave and wish to join them, the Swifts and Swallows left already, to avoid the rush.

I will write. I will tune down to Open C and seek blindly for inspiration.

One evening, not too far from here, I will feel the dread, the sudden realisation that Winter is here, and I will panic in the afternoon darkness. I will become morose and wish that I had done more, had gone swimming, had spent more time outside.

It happens every year.

There is no change in the Winter, the clocks will still work as they have always done, and Spring will roll around when it desires. In the meantime, I will seek the rutting Deer and the crashing tide, the final flourish of the falling leaf.

My favourite months, the inbetween seasons.

Very little will change, but I will feel, so desperately like it needs too. Outside it smells like bonfires and it has made me feel like I need to prepare, that there is something on the horizon.

Summer closes, the shadows get longer and we slide delicately into my favourite time of year.

It’s been a quiet year so far, but an important year. For a time there,I thought I was going to walk away from music, get a real job, settle.

I sort of tried it, but I got restless, I got down and I got annoyed instead.

And then I went to Sweden.

Four days at a tiny, beautiful festival in the middle of nowhere reawakened something within me – the need to travel – the need to experience – the need to feel something. It was, dare I say it, a “soulful” experience.

There was a moment, each evening, where the sun started to drop and the air pressure changed – a moment where the sound somehow carried up and through the pines, stretching somewhere towards forever. It was a beautiful experience and one I am so desperate to hear again.

I have needed to regain control, to feel like this was mine again, for it to become personal and less like work. I think I’m starting to find my way around that. I’m starting to inch back into the process of writing, of experiencing, of enjoying. Let us see what the year can bring.

Welcome to the new site, all built by yours truly, I’m rather proud.

Announcements to come next week, meanwhile, I’ll be testing this out for bugs, patiently writing and spending the last few summer evenings watching the sea roll in, preparing for the oncoming of sweater weather.